I’m a BIG reader! I LOVE books, and when I find an author I like I usually read my way systematically through all of his or her books. This is partly out of a lust for more of the same good stuff I found in the first book, but it’s also partly down to laziness. It saves me having to make the effort to go hunting for new and unexplored authors and book.
Sometimes books or authors just seem to leap up in front of me and scream “READ ME!” This happened to me this week when I was at our amazing public library here in Malmö.
Malmö Public Library
I saw a book on a display shelf – “The Humans” by Matt Haig. I liked the look of the cover, so I read the blurb and decided to loan it.
When I got home I googled Matt Haig and found this delightful video. It really puts most of the other “How to be a writer” stuff into perspective:
Love that BIG reader up there! You seem to pick books the same way I do…..when you find someone good, devour all they’ve written…..you might even say “follow” them! LOL!
That BIG reader is in no way a self portrait, but maybe it is representative of my “inner reader”. I’ve been “following” Lee Child for some time, but you get to the point of feeling stuffed full of the same author and their books, and you know that it’s time to move on. Before Lee Child I went through all of Andrea Camilleri’s “Montalbano” books, which I still adore.
I understand…not a self portrait. I Gott it!
Hahaha, that video is great, and so, so true. Especially the “delete those words” bit. 😉
The thing that cracks me up about that video is that he looks like Stan Laurel. You know, with the hair sticking up and the bemused expression?
Oh, good grief, it’s all so painfully true. From the going down the rabbit hole of gobbling up everything an author I like has written (or said, or thought and accidentally left on a cocktail napkin while just scribbling) to the video. Putting the Chopin behind it was sobering. I think I may need therapy.
The photo of the library was intriguing. The round building?
And the sketch was priceless.
The original library is the building on the left. Then they attached the cylinder on the huge glass building on the right. It’s glorious. Here’s a link to a pic of the inside: http://www.sydsvenskan.se/Images2/2013/6/23/Henningbibblan.jpg
Oh, wow, Rob. This your library?? You lucky so ‘n so.
What a lovely respite to my day. I too find an author I like and then plow through the series of books. I’ve been doing this since middle school. I remember my disappointment when I was up to book 17 of some mystery writer, only to learn it was her last.
When reading hours are precious, it’s hard to commit to something that doesn’t hit the mark.
Love your illustrations, today and always. I’m also in love with that library. And yes: that video!